Issue(s): Tales of the Marvels: Blockbuster
Cover Date: Apr 95
Title: "Blockbuster"
Credits:
Mike Baron - Writer
Shawn Martinbrough - Artist
Marc McLaurin - Editor

Review/plot:
This story uses one of my favorite events as its starting point: the Terrax fight from Fantastic Four #259-260. I was pretty excited when this was announced, once i got passed the fact that the dude on the cover looks nothing like Terrax (i remember even briefly wondering if it was the obscure Mutant Massacre villain Blockbuster). Unfortunately, my excitement was not warranted. This story sucks all the joy out of that one by suggesting that a lot of civilians were hurt and killed during that fight and giving us a dreary revenge motive to one of them, who - of all the characters involved in that fight - blames the Silver Surfer in particular for some reason.

Also the interior art makes the cover look great by comparison.

Mike Baron also intersperses the story with a random subplot about some other criminals who are stepping on the Kingpin's turf.

In the end, the Silver Surfer returns and, as you'd expect, the vengeance guy realizes that Vengeance Is Wrong or whatever. The Surfer also deals with whatever was going on with the Kingpin.

The art is ugly, the main story is a cliche, and the crime thing feels like a half-baked idea leftover from one of Mike Baron's Punisher runs. The main idea, that the superhero fights that you love so much would actually be devastating to regular people, was about ten years old at this point and isn't handled with any interesting insights. Whether you look at this in comparison to the story it used as a launching point or in comparison to Marvels (and even the Marvels-clones that this was accompanying), it's a real disappointment.

Quality Rating: D

Historical Significance Rating: 1

Chronological Placement Considerations: As with all issues that span a period of time, i'm placing this based on the final segment. The final segment includes the Kingpin as the top crimelord, which means this either takes place before the Fall of the Kingpin (Daredevil #300) or at some point way later after he's returned to that position. The MCP go with the former, but there seems to be a problem there. The final segment takes place "eight months" after the prior segment, which shows a fight between Quasar and Super-Skrull from Operation Galactic Storm, which happened in Quasar #34, cover date May 92. The Fall of the Kingpin ran from Oct 91-Jan 92. Reshuffling those major events such that Operation Galactic Storm took place (even a Sliding Timescale adjusted) "eight months" prior to books cover-dated half a year earlier seems difficult-at-best. The fact that the Kingpin's assistant, Maltese, who first appeared while the Kingpin was working his way back up, appears here, seems to support the later placement (granted it's possible that Maltese was always been part of the Kingpin's organization without us ever seeing him, but this feels cleaner). The problem is that i gave up trying to read the Daredevil series, so i don't know exactly when the Kingpin returns. It seems like it happens much later than this book's publication date, though, so i'm just going to let it sit in limbo for a while.

The original Terrax fight is said to have happened "five years" ago.

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